Out of the Woods, from short story to novel.

Originally, I planned Out of the Woods as a short story. So much for my “plans”.

What happened was that at the end of Out of Time, my heroine Erin (who, BTW, is my favorite of all my characters) is left emotionally battered from the events of the story. So, I meant the short story as a transition between Out of Time and the next full novel in the series—which I already have planned and outlined.

As I started to work on the short, however, I hit a major roadblock. I moaned and groaned and complained to fellow writers. And, as often happens when writers work together, one of my friends said, “what about . . .” and in the next few minutes, she suggested a solution that was both brilliant and unique.

We talked it over and as I got more excited about her idea, it suddenly hit me. “This is not a short story.”

“No,” she said, smiling, and maybe just a wee bit amused at how long it took me to realize what she’d known from the beginning. “It’s not.”

And that was that. On that day, Out of the Woods became the third book in the Erin Baker series. Welcome to the wacky, crooked road of being a working writer.

So, when will it be released? I’m working on finishing it by the end of February. Then it needs to go through the editing process, etc.. So look for it in late spring or early summer. I’ll keep you updated.